Uss Grapple To Aid In Search

November 01, 1999|By RICHARD WILLIAM ROGERS Daily Press

NORFOLK — The crew of USS Grapple is on its way to help salvage the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 990.

The Boeing 767-300 jetliner crashed into the ocean 65 miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Mass., about 2 a.m. Sunday. There were 214 people on the flight, including a reported 129 Americans. The flight was on its way from New York to Cairo when it disappeared from radar screens.

The USS Grapple left Hampton Roads for the crash site Sunday evening. It will take the Safeguard- class salvage ship about two days to make the trip, said Navy Cmdr. George Martin, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet.

The Grapple is a 240-foot, 3,193-ton salvage ship with a crew of 105, which includes salvage divers. The ship has salvaged wreckage from a depth of 10,000 feet, and its main boom can lift 40 tons. Radar on the squat vessel allows it to find wreckage on the sea floor. The waters near the crash site are 200-feet to 250-feet deep.

The Grapple was involved in two other major searches in the area: one after the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island and the other after the July crash of John Kennedy Jr.'s plane off Martha's Vineyard.

Richard William Rogers can be reached at 247-4629 or by e-mail at rrogers@dailypress.com